Findings, Not Intentions, Motivated Controversy

The following is in response to your cover story “Inconvenient Truth-Tellers” in the November 2013 Observer:

As someone with extensive (adverse) experience saying things, based on research, that people inside and outside of the academy did not want to hear, I finally found a pithy way to respond in an easily understandable manner to journalists and others who confused science and politics. In response to queries like “Why are you against day care?” it always took too long to explain that what one finds should not be confused with what one does — or does not — want to find; that is not how science works — or at least should work. So I now simply say, “If the weather reporters say it is going to rain tomorrow, is that because they’re against sunshine?”